Thursday, August 9, 2007

Warning: this is a clip from last year, shot with my web cam, and was never posted here with the other “bad old” clips due to audio problems. I had a few fans of my original blog asking for it (demanding to be more accurate), so I simply did a new voiceover and decided to post it as is.

This video’s horrible production value (I almost called this post “The Blair Witch Potato”) is more than made up for in that this really is a great recipe and technique. I really love potato gratins, but the thing I don’t enjoy, especially when I’m in a hurry is the slicing and layering. This video recipe shows you a shortcut method to achieve a very similar final product with much less work. You’ll have to watch to see how this is achieved since I don’t want to spoil the suspense and tension of the clip (unlike “Blair Witch” which we all knew was staged, and there weren’t really any ghosts).

You can use any cheese in this dish, of course, but I think a nice sharp cheddar is the way to go. I used a beautiful hunk of English Farmhouse Cheddar and it was great. Especially with the apple and shallot reduction that went over the pork loin I served with these potatoes. Also, I used low fat 1% milk for this dish. I would resist the temptation to use cream in this, as I think it makes it this recipe too rich. Enjoy!

Similar to my layered potatoes except mine take forever to cook, the precook will do the trick for sure! I also lay thick cut pork chops on top and yummmmmm! (pork chops only need about an hour of cook time)Thanks for your recipes and videos. I'm adicted to cooking videos.

Wow! Thank you, Chef John, for giving me a little cooking cred! I've done three of your recipes so far,and they came out so much better than just following a recipe. Guess I'm a "visual" person. Hubby is from the midwest and a tater guy, and I've always had problems coming up with new ways to cook them. He LOVED this. Served it with a roast chicken and roasted cauliflower. I LOVE YOU!! (Hubby approves of that last comment)

You should recycle this recipe. It is foolproof (speaking from experience) and so tasty. It is easy to reduce it for two, and easy to increase it for 6. It also cooks in the background. You can have this in the oven while you have to deal with things going fast on the burners. If it gets done early, you can nuke it to warm it up, without loosing flavor. It is almost as good as your corn custard side dish, but much less time consuming.